Optima Consulting Partners

By making your solution so critical to their operations that a budget is created for it. Of course the only way to do this is by selling to the people who have the power to create budgets where there was none and that is at the C Level. Don’t work with the budget- compete to get a budget allocated to it- Present the problems in a new light and identify what makes your solution so special that it is a requirement and not something they’d like to have but can’t afford it at this time. Do your research and find out what makes that person tick. Look into their current solutions and investigate how these aren’t providing the solutions your service does.

Talk about their competitors- how their competitors are reacting to this and the steps they have taken. Attach real figures to this, for example if they don’t implement this solution in the very near future they are likely to see their profit dwindle by 16% by the beginning of 2010.

By getting inside the minds of C Level people and understanding what will keep them up at night and driving that message home is what will make you competitive in the current climate.

Most people wish they could get Q2 quota relief, but in reality we all know that it isn’t going to happen and the pressure from investors and shareholders means that there is even more pressure on the Q2 number to increase rather than decrease.

The reality of the situation is this:

• The worldwide economic climate will get worse over the coming 12 months and not better
• The majority of technology sales teams missed their Q1 number
• Targets will not decrease in Q2
• Sales and marketing teams will reduce in size
• Channels will need to be leveraged more effectively to make up the resource gap
• Q2 is the last chance to undertake activity for it to have an impact on this years’ results

Optima’s Prospect Nurturing and Project Identification teams provide a constant flow of qualified opportunities, projects and leads that will close within 0-6 months. We work with direct sales teams and particularly channel partners, where we accelerate sales cycles and give our customers increased visibility into partner pipelines. Please continue here for more information on how to achieve Q2 quota relief.

I recently came across an interesting traditional Chinese term, guānxi (关系) it’s literal translation meaning Relationship. The Chinese, even today attach much importance to building guānxi with people they wish to do business with. The Chinese firmly believe that having the right guānxi makes all the difference to success or failure in business. Guānxi is based around building trust with an individual and is not necessarily associated with money and you do not need to be of the same social status as that of the person you are trying to make a connection with.

In China there is much more emphasis on building relationships and they are compelled to look to their friends first to do business with. Whilst this to a certain exists in Western countries there is a larger focus on the bottom line- how is this going to benefit me. Therefore a shorter process is required to build guānxi with people in western countries by building a trust and frequent contact with that organisation.

I think the Chinese sum up what is important when building a successful business and staying successful. It is not the amount of money they are making, it goes deeper than this, you need to create effective and trusting relationships with people that require you to treat those people with respect and deliver to them what you promise- this alone will keep your customers coming back and build your reputation as a trustworthy organisation through building effective guānxi.

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In a downturn economy budgets are being cut and the decision making process is being pushed to the top, more time is being spent in the negotiation phase as buyers try to reduce cost. This means your sales team have to work harder and longer for each deal they close.

By working with clients to kick off the sales process directly at the C Level, allows you to sell to the people who have the power not only to say yes but say yes this fiscal year and have the visibility to say yes to multinational deals.

In this economy there is a clearly identified requirement to close deals and bring in revenue over the next 2 quarters. Effectively utilise the technology lead generation process to your advantage by understanding the key issues companies are facing when operating effectively in a downturned economy. Further to this by employing and investing in sales teams that are able to articulate your companies proposition in a business language that relates directly to the organisation and the individual they are trying to close business.

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The industry has seen a rise in UK companies outsourcing a number of their business processes which were traditionally seen to be conducted in house with this trend set to rise throughout 2009.

With the pressure from the credit crunch being levied on companies there is an increased demand in achieving results quickly but without the long term financial commitments.

The main driver in outsourcing is the need for increased flexibility when it comes round to renewing their contracts particularly due to cuts in budget and the increased need for ROI.

The advantage of outsourcing your sales team is that it is results based. Good outsourced sales teams offer a pay on results service, as opposed to employing an in-house sales team.

A good outsourced sales company will help promote your service/product offering and build upon the brand, acting as your own in-house sales team. They will take time to get to know your company and the products and services that you need promoting with their services fitting seamlessly into your company activity.

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What has happened to the 3:1 ratio? There seems to be an over riding trend amongst sales people to completely ignore the proven metric that the technology sales pipeline should be at least 3 times the sale number you want to achieve in that quarter.

Sales people tend to forecast every prospect in their pipeline in the hope that every deal will come through - this rarely happens. So why does this happen? Quite simply it’s to please their managers, they are not qualifying out the ones that that are not viable to do with business with in the short term and putting all these together with the people they are actually likely to close business with in the same forecast. Then when the deal doesn’t materialise they are surprised!

The problem is usually based around the effectiveness of individual sales peoples ability to qualify opportunities. Qualification of individual prospects and the overall technology sales pipeline is usually coloured by sales peoples desire to please their bosses and demonstrate how hard they are working rather than reality.

Qualify effectively from the outset, identify the small proportion of your prospects that are serious about doing business and allocate time proportionately to closing those sales. At the same time it is important to qualify out those prospect companies where you recognise that there is no business opportunity within the medium term. Sounds sensible and sounds easy, so why do so many sales people spend time chasing deals that will never happen?

Chance would be a fine thing looking at the way the economies going. However, in order to make money it is imperative companies continue to invest in sales and marketing.

The last recession is littered with companies who effectively shut up shop and merely looked for survival when the economy went into recession. Who were the ones that survived and went on to prosper when the economy inevitably picked up again? The companies that looked past what they were immediately faced with and continued to strive for growth throughout.

That’s not to say companies should continue to allocate large proportions of their budget to the same methods in the belief that if it worked when the economy was doing well it’ll work now. Quite the opposite, companies should scrutinise where their money is going and whether this spend is bringing an effective rate on return. If it is not, don’t simply cut the budget, change it, look for new methods that will take that budget and multiply it and as the economy and external factors change so should the budget allocation.

Hello and welcome to our brand new technoogy blog! We will be regularly updating this with the latest sales news, technology developments and how the economy is impacting on the technology sector. I hope you find our blog informative and interesting, as always please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions!

Thanks

Carly Prowen

Group Marketing Manager